The color gamut of a printer is a multi-dimensional space of a given volume with the axes of the space being set or defined initially by the pigments used in the colorants of the primary colors. Each set of color primaries: red, green, blue (RGB) or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) defines a “color space” that includes all colors that can result from any combination of these primaries. The “color space” or “color gamut” may be quite different for different sets of primaries. A CMYK color gamut can intersect an RGB color gamut. Such gamuts, however, are different from one another. That is one gamut or a set of gamuts is not a subset of the other. Thus, RGB may not cover all CMYK colors and vice versa.
In forming multi-color output images on an image-receiving medium, each of the primary colors can be transferred to the image-receiving medium in turn. The color gamut is defined by the interaction of the primary colors and is limited by the total amount of colorant in any combination that can be effectively deposited on the image-receiving medium.